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Regulatory agencies are invading armies

Dr. Bastiat
@drbastiat
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Canadian citizens never voted in favor of socialized medicine. Why would anyone do that? It makes sense to vote for bad health care for other people, if you’re a sociopath or a leftist. But why would anyone vote for bad health care for themselves?

The Canadian government may not have cared about health care, but it cared a great deal about power. So they simply seized the health care industry, using men with guns. Just kidding, of course. They didn’t seize the health care industry. They regulated it. They couldn’t pass laws, so they passed regulations that were impossible to satisfy (or even understand). This made the entire health care industry so inefficient that after a while it didn’t work, forcing the government to step in and save the people from the rich corporations who were ostensibly to blame. Obamacare is based on a similar model. Works every time.

Like most leftists, NYC’s Mayor Mamdani views private property as an intolerable challenge to government power. So he is seizing all private property in NYC, using men with guns. Just kidding, of course. He isn’t seizing the private property he covets. He is regulating it. He has proposed an initiative in which,

“…the city’s Department of Buildings will be weaponized to begin writing as many violations as possible in order to bolster the city’s effort to justify a seizure. Mamdani has called them “roof to cellar” inspections, and the purpose is clear: to violate landlords out of their properties. It won’t matter how small or large the violations are; the total number will be breathlessly cited as evidence of mismanagement, making it impossible for landlords to clear them. In fact, the landlord will be lucky to walk away without doing time or being beaten to death in the street by an angry mob. (As Mamdani’s buddy Hasan Piker referred to landlords, “Let the streets run red with their capitalist blood.”)

No landlord could withstand the regulatory compliance, legal battles, and fines that would result from a regulatory plan designed to destroy him or her. So they’ll be forced to sell. Fortunately, the ever-helpful Mayor Mamdani has a plan for that, too:

“All property owners interested in selling would be forced by law to first offer the property to “qualified entities,” i.e., nonprofits the city has preselected, and they would be granted somewhere between 60 and 120 days to submit an offer and arrange financing before the property ever reaches the open market. In the event a private transaction is ultimately arranged, the property owner would then have to take the private deal back to the city and give the nonprofits a chance to match the offer.”

Just like the Canadian government has no interest in health care (as you can see from watching them manage it now), the NYC government has no interest in real estate. But leftists in government do care about one thing: power. Power independent of elections. They dream of a day in which they will no longer have to cheat in elections:

These highly political nonprofits would become the new land barons of New York—complete with all the political clout, leverage, and reach that goes along with it. It would be a true nightmare scenario. The organizing potential that comes with such immense resources will have national implications. Every DSA candidate in every town and city in the country would be trained, funded, and staffed by organizers with ties to the NYC nonprofit empire backed by a trillion dollars in free real estate. And they would be shameless in leveraging those resources for pure political power.

That’s the game plan here. That’s the whole ball of wax.

Americans tolerate a lot of regulation. License plates for our cars – makes them safer or something, right? Of course people who braid hair need a certification – imagine what might happen if they braided hair with no oversight, right? Paying an inspector to certify the safety of the same plumbing in the same building year after year. It seems silly. But it’s no big deal, really. What does a license plate cost? $25? Eh, whatever.

Plus, some regulations have helped in some cases, right? Of course they have! So regulations are good! Obviously! So how could you possibly criticize regulatory agencies interested only in fairness and our safety! You racist Republican!

Right. Ok.

But as leftists gain more and more power, we should start to view regulatory agencies the same way we view invading armies.

Because they have the same intentions.

* sigh *

I don't like this either. But unfortunately, it has become impossible to ignore any longer.

As usual, I really hope I'm wrong about all this.

But Mr. Mamdani and the Democrat Party say that I'm right.

* sigh *

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (40)

  • RufusRJones@RufusRJones
    Dr. Bastiat (View Post):

    Like most leftists, NYC’s Mayor Mamdani views private property as an intolerable challenge to government power. So he is seizing all private property in NYC, using men with guns. Just kidding, of course. He isn’t seizing the private property he covets. He is regulating it. He has proposed an initiative in which,
    “…the city’s Department of Buildings will be weaponized to begin writing as many violations as possible in order to bolster the city’s effort to justify a seizure. Mamdani has called them “roof to cellar” inspections, and the purpose is clear: to violate landlords out of their properties. It won’t matter how small or large the violations are; the total number will be breathlessly cited as evidence of mismanagement, making it impossible for landlords to clear them. In fact, the landlord will be lucky to walk away without doing time or being beaten to death in the street by an angry mob. (As Mamdani’s buddy Hasan Piker referred to landlords, “Let the streets run red with their capitalist blood.”)

    Dr. Bastiat (View Post):

    Power which is no longer dependent on elections.

    It's the same thing with the government money they force you to use. If you save it, you have to take a lot of risk to beat the inflation they force on you. You can't just stick it in a savings account. Now nobody can afford anything.

    Trade and automation create constant deflation. It creates a constant lowering of prices. Then the federal reserve totally runs all over it. It's theft, but so many people think it's good.

  • cdor@cdor
    When I was working, I owned a building that had a freight elevator. The building was two stories, so the elevator had very little height to travel. We used to have two inspections every year. One came from the city and the other from the state. That meant two separate inspection fees. Finally, some businesses sued, and the city was ordered to stand down. Progress! Now we only had one inspection per year. But every year, they somehow found something new that we needed to fix to pass inspection. One time, the inspector decided I needed to install a telephone in my two-story elevator. Of course, I protested vociferously, "The elevator only travels two floors. If it gets stuck, it is easier to yell for help than call on the telephone (this was before cell phones)." "But what if no one else is in the building?" the inspector argued. I explained that the only time that could happen is after hours; otherwise, there would always be someone else within earshot. The inspector had the gall to state that a robber might get caught in the elevator when no one else was in the building. I said," Good, then he will be there for the police to arrest him the next morning." This is a true story. I pity any honest person in New York City. They will not have a chance against a communist regime. The devil, with his big smile, will happily destroy some property owners who have worked hard and honestly all their lives. Every time I see a picture of Momdani, I get a sick feeling in my gut.
  • Old Bathos@OldBathos

    A policy to destroy profit and transfer ownership to entities that have neither the incentive nor means to maintain property is slum-building by design. The predictable effect of reducing housing supply makes virtual squatters (designated beneficiaries) unable and unwilling to move as the decline proceeds. The cost and regulatory barriers to housing construction means that only very high condos/co-ops can be built. Then the barista proletariat will call upon the government to reduce the "unexpectedly" growing economic divide, i .e, destroy the remaining private holdings.

    Think of all the positive things that could be achieved with all the mental energy lefties waste warring on reality.

  • Fritz@Fritz

    "What does a license plate cost? $25?"

    Must be nice. This year, my 7-year old Sentra finally made it down to just under $200 to renew. The registration is $30 but then there are the piled-on taxes that grift go to fund light rail (which agency is years behind schedule and some $30 Billion in the red so far).

  • Zafar@Zafar

    Wait, that Tablet article is written by Vickie Paladino. Her wiki page has a whole Mamdani section:

    On June 2, 2025, Paladino called for the deportation of New York State Assemblymember and then-candidate for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. She made the comment via an X post, questioning his opinion of the United States and his political views; Mamdani, a United States citizen who was naturalized in 2018, immigrated to the United States from Uganda as a child.[34][35] The New York City Council’s Standards and Ethics Committee filed disciplinary charges against her in March 2026 for multiple social media posts she made, including ones responding to Mamdani's election. In May 2026, Paladino and the City Council settled the proceedings; Paladino is required to delete three of her X posts, publicly apologize, and remove mention of her job as Councilmember from her X display name.

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